BOSTON -- The Northeastern University baseball team (0-5) heads to Baton Rouge, Louisiana for a four-game weekend set at Alex Box Stadium, Skip Bertman Field, taking on Grambling State (3-5) on Friday and Sunday, and No. 2 Louisiana State University (8-1) on Saturday and Monday. First pitch on Friday against Grambling State is set for 1 p.m. CT (2 p.m. ET), followed by Saturday's showdown with the Tigers at 2 p.m. CT (3 p.m. ET). Sunday's rematch with Grambling State is set for 6:30 p.m. CT (7:30 p.m. ET), and the series wraps up Monday night against LSU at 6:30 p.m. CT (7:30 p.m. ET). Saturday and Monday's games against LSU will be streamed on SEC Network+.

THREE THINGS TO KNOW:

1. SCOUTING THE TIGERS (LSU): Saturday's contest will mark just the second all-time meeting between Northeastern and Louisiana State University -- the first came over two decades ago, on May 30, 2003, in the NCAA Baton Rouge Regional at the old Alex Box Stadium, where the Tigers took an 11-8 win. This time around, the Huskies face a significantly taller task: LSU (8-1) enters the weekend as the defending national champions, having won the 2025 College World Series -- the eighth national title in program history. Head coach Jay Johnson's squad opened 2026 with eight straight wins before falling 7-6 to McNeese on Tuesday night, snapping a 16-game win streak dating back to last season. The Tigers are ranked #1 by Perfect Game, #2 by D1Baseball and Baseball America.

2. SCOUTING THE TIGERS (GRAMBLING STATE): Friday and Sunday's games will be the first all-time meetings between Northeastern and Grambling State. The Tigers, a member of the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC), enter the weekend with a 3-5 record under head coach Davin Pierre. Grambling State opened the year going 2-1 at the MLB HBCU Power Series in Pearl, Mississippi, with wins over Alcorn State and Alabama A&M, before going 1-2 at the Andre Dawson Classic in Vero Beach, Florida, where they fell to Southern (13-3) and Alabama State (14-5) and picked up a win over Jackson State. The G-Men were projected fourth in the SWAC Preseason Poll, with three players earning Preseason All-SWAC honors.

3. HUSKIES IN THE FORT: Before heading to Baton Rouge, the Huskies made their annual trip to JetBlue Park at Fenway South in Fort Myers, Florida on February 20 for their exhibition game against the Boston Red Sox. Northeastern jumped out to a 2-1 lead after two innings -- Harrison Feinberg singled to lead off the game, stole second, and scored on Ryan Gerety's single through the right side in the first, and Anthony Ruggiero singled, stole second and third, and came home on a throwing error in the second. Starter Robbie O'Connor turned in the pitching highlight of the afternoon, retiring the Sox in order in the second inning, capping the frame with a strikeout. The Red Sox answered with three runs in the third and four in the fourth before an explosive nine-run sixth put the game out of reach at 18-2. Cooper Tarantino singled in the seventh and came around to score on a Will Fosberg single to set the final at 18-3. The result ran Boston's record to 22-0 against Northeastern in the all-time series, which includes a one-off 10-2 Red Sox win at Fenway Park in 1977 and has continued as an annual Spring Training tradition at JetBlue Park since 2004. The Huskies posted seven hits and five stolen bases in the contest -- all seven hits were singles, tallied by Feinberg, Gerety, Ruggiero, Tarantino, Fosberg, Carmelo Musacchia, and Matt Brinker. The seven hits were the most by a Husky team against the Red Sox since 2017.